Lots of research suggesting metrics for the savings cloud is doing or going to do in the future. If I’m trying to look into the 2020 timeframe, the numbers will get into 30-45% savings range, mostly due to ruthless virtualization. In projects we are doing today, with good results we can get in the 30% saving push out the virtualization efforts and up to additional 20% savings due to “bursting” techniques. This great picture is not “steady state” unfortunately. Along the time while implementing the strategies in some industries we see a “rebound” on the virtualization number creating erosion in the overall savings picture originally anticipated. Meaning – strategy should include a really fair TCO analysis taking into account applications behavior versus the utilization prognosis.

But how green is this Cloud move overall? Interestingly enough, in one of the conferences I just spoke in EMEA the total majority of the people at the event believe that the Cloud is green and will create significant savings for the IT organization. It is my humble opinion that the green agenda is currently away from the center of the Cloud strategy, for organizations that have Cloud strategies. The story of the green agenda is introduced later on during the IaaS discussion. Overall, the majority of the Data Center build is green with intentions to be as high as possible on the ladder of the LEED/equivalent standards. When the investment is found to be 5-7% of the total cost of build, organizations are staying in the certified zone with under 1% investment. The next layer that is getting a huge splash in the industry nowadays is related to DCIM - Data Center Infrastructure Management. The high importance of this layer is due to the fact that is introducing unprecedented clarity in the operation and management of the Data Center.

Introducing smart technologies is great though must be part of the main strategy – I can’t see an organization taking advantage of the Cloud without meaning it. Certainly not everybody is comfortable calling the “C” word, in this case the approach is typically to utilize business units segmentation, such that only parts of the business is set for potential Cloud integration in the most straightforward way. It is also expected that these segments will be lower in availability requirements as well significantly more sustainable. The additional element to take advantage from, will be the enabling systems for the Cloud that in the past participated less in the whole green picture (if you think even about the actual definition of PUE) – HP CloudSystem is a great example of such enabler that I will touch in one of the future writings. Overall in the immediate Cloud future, even green will not be in the importance stack at the level of security for the CIO, once the strategy is in place it will be certainly get in the center of attention.

Personal note: for those following me, just wanted to inform you that in the last several weeks I changed my role focusing on costumers around the world supporting our great HP Technology Services Consulting organization, while leading our Global Innovation Office in HP Technology Services.